While the late night gang was having their nightly meeting, the Mastermind was giggling evilly as a new motive was being worked upon. Instead of going with the original second motive, the Mastermind had decided to make a new motive given the current atmosphere with the other students. Considering that both Rantaro and Niles were still alive and around, no thanks to Kaede failing to kill Rantaro, the Mastermind knew that those two needed to go as the two were bound to throw a monkey wrench in the entirety that is DanganRonpa. The fact that the two had teamed up and were sticking with each other irked the Mastermind beyond measure and they knew the only way to get rid of that problem was to kill at least one of them off. Of course, they couldn't do it as they needed to stick around to make sure the show went smoothly after all! The Mastermind was very pleased with the new motive they whipped up quick as they were certain it would get one of the two killed since the majority didn't trust either Rantaro or Niles. Once the motive was completed, the Mastermind sets the motive to be released a few hours before the morning announcement so that everyone would have a wonderful message to wake up to. With another evil giggle, the Mastermind leaves the Mastermind Room, and heads to the dorms, ready for sleep and for the chaos the morning would bring.
The next morning, Niles and Rantaro were already on edge before getting to the cafeteria despite knowing the only other person who would have beat them there would be Kirumi. The message they woke up to was not good. It was clearly the next motive and the two knew that the Mastermind was trying to frame both of them to get one of them, if not both of them killed. Fortunately for both males, Kirumi did not seem to be suspicious of them and almost seemed... relieved... that they were there. As people entered the cafeteria, the tension in the air increased. It was dead silent in the cafeteria as everyone ate, the only noises that broke the silence occasionally being the scrape of a chair or utensil, the setting down of a plate or cup, and Kirumi's footsteps here and there. No one dared to speak a word as various nervous eyes darted to the table of Rantaro, Niles and Kokichi and to Kirumi. Unable to stand the quiet, Tenko suddenly shoots up to her feet and slams her hands down on the table, looking at the table of three.
"Alright! That's it! I can't take this silence anymore! I've been telling you all since the first day that Niles and Rantaro are suspicious!" Tenko says.
"...You really think we would be dumb enough to send a motive like that?" Niles asks, glaring at Tenko.
"You could have! Maybe you're trying to play it so that you're too obvious and we'll kill the wrong person instead!" Tenko retorts.
"Well, while they are the suspicious, we can't just think it's just them... Right?" Tsumugi asks, rubbing her hands nervously.
"Gonta don't understand. Isn't it those two?" Gonta asks, furrowing his eyebrows.
"Well Gonta, the message we all woke to was pretty vague. The Mastermind said that they have a helper. The hint about who it could be was worded in a short an odd poem," Kiibo says.
"Suspicious I am,
Observing you all day.
Danger is my friend,
And blocking your way," Kaito recites. "And while it's pretty vague, we all know Niles constantly hangs out Rantaro, and that Niles is dangerous."
"Well, you might as well throw Kokichi in there as well! He's suspicious as shit and hangs out with those two losers as well!" Miu comments.
"I didn't read the message completely as it was too much of a pain... What would we gain from doing this?" Himiko asks.
"Supposedly, if we kill the helper, the murderer gets to leave with no trial, much like the First Blood Perk. If we kill the Mastermind, the game ends," Kaede answers, wincing as she did.
"Ooooh, Gonta understand now!" Gonta says.
"I don't want to throw shade on Kirumi but I can't help but think she's also a little bit suspicious too," Kaito frowns.
"You have a point there Kaito. Kirumi is a maid as we know, but from what I've understood from murder mysteries like Clue, the maid is either innocent or the one who did it!" Kiibo says.
"Keheheheheh... What interesting observations you all have made. It's so wonderous seeing you all try to deduce who it could be from just a small bit of information," Korekiyo says.
"...You do realize you're making yourself really suspicious too, right Korekiyo?" Maki asks.
"Oh I'm aware. But I have faith that you all will figure out this mystery," Korekiyo answers calmly.
"Weeeellllll~ If we're going to go around pointing fingers... It's me and Kiibo!" Kokichi says, grinning wickedly.
"What?! I am not in cahoots with you Kokichi!" Kiibo says. Niles and Rantaro share a really worried glance, wondering what the hell the purple haired gremlin was doing.
"Maybe you are, maybe you're not~" the Supreme Leader grins.
"Great! Less people to trust now!" Miu groans again. "All you assholes really ain't making this easy!"
"Well, I imagine the Mastermind would want to incite as much chaos as they possibly can," Rantaro says.
"Shut it you degenerate! You're not off the hook!" Tenko snaps at Rantaro. Niles growls a bit.
"Why don't you shut it yourself? You don't have any proof on who it could be. You're just an obnoxious woman with such strong anger and hatred towards men that you just want to throw them under the carriage! I don't know what your problem is, but I would advise that you stop being an idiot and use your head instead of your emotions for once," Niles retorts, an annoyed edge to his voice as he narrows his eye at the Aikido Master.
"There you go! Pretending you're better than everyone! I should shut you up myself!" Tenko growls, her anger flaring up even more than normal. She starts to move towards Niles whose hand instinctively twitches. The Outlaw catches himself, however, and doesn't let his hand actually go to his bow. After all, he didn't need others outside of Kokichi, Rantaro, Kaede and Shuichi to know he was armed.
"And how do you plan on doing that, hmm? Killing me?" Niles asks. "Go on! I'd like to see you try right in front of everyone," he taunts. It was only then that Tenko stopped and she bristles.
"Oh! Did I say that the whole thing about me and Kiibo being a dastardly duo was all a lie~?" Kokichi pipes up.
"No but that's what we assumed," Shuichi says, sighing heavily.
"AUGH!" Tenko shouts. "Himiko! Let's go!" she says to the short magician.
"Okay..." Himiko sighs before following Tenko out of the cafeteria so she didn't get dragged out... again. Some of the tension in the cafeteria dissipates once Tenko leaves the cafeteria but no one really relaxed. Niles was on hyper alert, standing in front of Rantaro protectively, as if daring someone to try something.
"Well now that the blabbering bitch is gone..." Miu says. "Niles, Rantaro, Koichi, Kirumi and Kiibo are the most suspicious right now, right?"
"Wow! You actually used your brain for that! I wasn't sure if you had a brain with how ridiculously large your gross tits are! Never thought you would be more than a dumbass whore!" Kokichi says to the blonde who appears flustered as she tries to retort.
"S-shut your damn fuckin' mouth you l-lying little abortion!" Miu stutters out.
"But wait, why am I being lumped in with being suspicious? Are you all being robophobic towards me?" Kiibo asks, looking at everyone with hurt in his eyes.
"Even though I am one of the suspected, and I accept that, with what Kokichi said, we cannot rule you out Kiibo. Since we have no way of knowing if what he said is true or not, we have no choice but to hold you suspicious," Kirumi explains.
"I... I see," Kiibo says, a little sad hearing this but does not try to fight it further.
"Are we done here then?" Niles asks. "I have no intention of getting murdered by one of you idiots cause you think it's me."
"Hey! Watch it!" Kaito says to the one eyed man. "But yeah, I'd say we're done in here."
"Splendid. Rantaro, we're going. Kokichi, feel free to tag along with us if you want," Niles says before walking out of the cafeteria after gently yet firmly pulling the Survivor with him. Rantaro just lets it happen as he knew that he definitely needed to stay with the Outlaw if he wanted to survive. Kokichi just waves at the group in the cafeteria and skips after the other two.
"Sounds like we really gotta rely on Maki for today. Hopefully she can find something out, even if it's just a warning to us," Rantaro says once far enough away from the cafeteria.
"Agreed. Now, any idea on where we could go? My Research Lab would be too obvious of a spot," Niles says.
"And we can't really just go to one of the more common spots..." Kokichi says.
"Oh I know- Why not the boiler room? I want to check that area again for something we could have missed," Rantaro suggests.
"That's actually a good idea Rantaro," Niles says. With Kokichi agreeing, the three alter their course for outside the school, Niles still holding onto Rantaro's wrist as they go. It was only when the trio reached the boiler room that Niles let go of Rantaro. They then search around the boiler room, Niles keeping an eye out for anyone who might approach them all more than looking around for hints.
"Hey guys. I found something. It's kind of weird and I'm not sure what the meaning is," Rantaro calls out to the other two. He was squatting by a stone slab that was covered mostly by grass. Kokichi and Niles approach and look at the writing.
"Horse A? What in the world could that possibly mean?" Niles asks, his white eyebrows furrowing in confusion.
"Beats me! But it looks important!" Kokichi says.
"In that case.. I'm going to write this down in my MonoPad..." Rantaro says, pulling his out. He goes to the evidence section and finds a small notes section and types it down so that he had it with him.
"...Hey do you mind if I start to obscure this?" Kokichi asks the green haired male.
"Oh sure, go for it," the Survivor responds. "Wait, you have a marker?"
"Yup! No paper though," Kokichi answers.
"Let me guess, for your troublesome little pranks O Great Supreme Leader?" Niles asks.
"Nishishishi~ You got it~" the purple haired gremlin answers before pulling out his marker and starts adding random lettering to what was already there. "Alright! Let's go inside the boiler room!"
"Sounds good to me," Rantaro says, standing up.
"Let me check first," Niles says to the two as he stands and starts approaching the boiler room. He checks the door for traps and upon finding none, he carefully opens it, making sure not to stand directly in the door. After a few moments of nothing, Niles pokes his head inside and steps inside and does a quick sweep. "Clear!"
"Thanks Niles," Rantaro says with a smile once he enters the room.
"That was really cool! It was like watching a spy movie!" Kokichi beams at Niles.
"I take it that's a good thing-" Niles says, not sure what a spy movie is.
"Yup! And I wasn't lying~" Kokichi hums. Rantaro chuckles and starts to look around the room again in case he and Niles missed something the first day of the Killing Game.
"I found another one guys," Rantaro calls out to the two. "This one says twins b."
"Huh. These definitely have some sort of meaning.. But what could they possibly mean..." Niles says, frowning a bit.
"Guess we'll find out later! I wouldn't be surprised if it has something to do with Rantaro!" the Supreme Leader says.
"You think so? I guess that makes sense... Being the Survivor and previously the Adventurer.." Rantaro hums out.
"Either you or Shuichi," Niles says. The trio scoured the boiler room more but found nothing of interest besides the two odd messages. They stuck close to each other for the day, letting Niles scout out and scare off anyone who tried to approach them to keep them safe, as much as Rantaro didn't want to scare the others. Fortunately for them, night came quickly and Maki meets them in their usual spot. As expected, everyone was on high alert and they were no closer to figuring out who the actual Mastermind was. The four take the moment to just relax from the intense day, their muscles finally relaxing and they enjoy the semi quiet. The only noise were the night insects and Kokichi's attempts to get Maki riled up. Eventually Maki takes her leave, Kokichi taking his shortly after, leaving Rantaro and Niles alone in the grass. The two were laying in the grass, just stargazing at what they hoped was the true outside night sky. All was well.. until Niles yoinks Rantaro onto him and rolls away as something lands in the grass where they were once laying.
"Shit-" Rantaro gasps as he sees the faint outline of another shotput. He looks up since Niles had rolled them so that the Outlaw was on top. Niles had gotten up and whipped out his bow and an arrow. He quickly draws it back and releases the arrow at where he assumed the figure was seeing that it was a bit too dark for a one hundred percent accurate shot. His arrow whistles through the air and he knows he hits his mark by the faint but distinctive male grunt of pain.
"Let's go! We can't lose him!" Niles says to Rantaro before taking off after the unknown attacker. Rantaro quickly gets to his feet and chases after Niles. The two males chase their assailant towards the school building since that's the direction of the faint footsteps was leading them. They burst through the doors of the building but pause as they could no longer tell the direction of the running footsteps.
"We can't continue. There's no way we can catch this person without risking one of our lives," Rantaro says.
"Motherfucker! Oh I can't wait to capture this asshole and see him punished," Niles growls out, fuming at the fact that the person who attacked him and Rantaro got away. "Well, let's get some rest and be ready to do a search in the morning!"
"Yeah," Rantaro says, starting to leave with Niles, tugging the one eyed man out the door and hurriedly to the dorms. "Do you mind if I steal some of your clothes for the night?"
"That's fine. I was going to suggest that anyways," Niles answers. With a nod, the two males quickly get to Niles's room within the dorms and secure the door. Neither were looking forward to the next morning, knowing that someone was going to be dead by morning.